


Dried Roses

by Stormslostradiant



Category: Magic Kaito
Genre: F/M, Grief/Mourning, Mentions of contemplated Murder-Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 05:58:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6553726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormslostradiant/pseuds/Stormslostradiant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroba Toichi was dead, and Chikage had to deal with it all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dried Roses

Chikage burnt her wedding dress.  
She did it out in the front lawn, together with books and hats and playing cards.  
She sat there, weeping silently long past when the flames turned to ashes.

There were days she refused to go out the house.  
She’d draw the curtains and lock all the windows with wooden bars, and then she’d dim the lights and sit there watching the fire in the hearth holding her son to her chest.  
They’d talk and laugh, and then Chikage would put her gun back in its box.

Some nights, she’d head out to steal something, hoping a shadow of the night would swoop down and stop her.  
She’d stand in front of a target, waiting for hours on end, until she sat crying on the museum floor.  
Sometimes she thought she’d see something white out of the corner of her eyes,  
And she’d turn with wide eyes before reality comes back and has her crashing into despair.

For a few months, she looked at everyone suspiciously;   
Fighting the urge to pull them in and kiss them ‘cuz they might just be her Toichi in disguise.  
It’s even worse the week she stalks Kudo Yuusaku. He can’t be Toichi, but her heart wishes all the same.

It’s her little boy that keeps her sane: smiling and crying and needing that he is, even with that pokerface.  
She teaches him all he can remember, all that she can think of in memory of Toichi.  
Then he comes home one day; and he isn’t so small anymore. She sees the quirky grin on his face and realizes she has to leave; she can’t live with this ghost in the house. Not when she might stop seeing the Kaito in him.

Leaving makes things easier. She leaves Kuroba Toichi behind, and instead it’s Kaitou Kid that haunts every major city, every restaurant and more than one lonely rooftop.  
But KID is elusive, and so it’s easier to ignore his presence, easier to pretend he’s just round the corner.  
She comes alive again, with the Ghost of her Magician trailing after her, always just out of reach.

She’s at home again when the news of Kaitou KID remerging appears in the news, and after the worry and the anger; she’s proud that upon seeing that white hat, it was Kaito she thought of.

So maybe the man haunts her still, at home, at magic shows and at night. Maybe sometimes she dances on the rooftop with empty air, just laughing and pretending.  
So maybe she still sometimes ends up in locked up places late at night; but she no longer watches for white in the corner of her vision, no longer hunts the man she grew to love.  
She can wear new clothes and try new things and look at her son now without worrying. She can steal and dance and flirt, and it’s all magic again; like it was with him because she knows, somewhere, he’s watching over them.


End file.
